The Hindu : International : Criminal abuses, says American magazine

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 03, 2004

International

International

Criminal abuses, says American magazine

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, MAY 2. Even as the outrage over the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers has hardly subsided, the New Yorker magazine is coming out with a story on Monday saying the prisoners faced numerous "sadistic, blatant and wanton" criminal abuses that included beatings and sodomy.

The New Yorker Magazine, according to a report, has obtained an internal U.S. military report that gets into the alleged abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. The report had been authorised by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top Pentagon brass in Iraq, and completed in February.

The U.S. Army report has listed various gruesome abuses .

The report was written by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba and is said to include some "detailed witness statements" along with discovery of "extremely graphic photographic evidence."

The Pentagon has not officially commented on the piece other than saying the Department takes "all reports of detainee abuse seriously and all allegations are thoroughly investigated."

The Washington Post has said in its Sunday editions the prisoner abuse probe is being widened. According to this report, a top Pentagon intelligence officer is heading the probe after allegations have surfaced that military guards abused detenus on instructions from military intelligence operatives.

A soldier who has been accused of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib facility had written to his family last December that military intelligence officers had encouraged the mistreatment.

Staff Sgt. Ivan `Chip' Fredrick had written home that he had questioned some of these steps "...and the answer I got was: This is how military intelligence wants it done."

The army Reserve Commander was in charge of the prison has said that it was the Military Intelligence, not the Military Police, that dictated the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

"The prison and that particular cell block where the events took place were under the control of the MI command," Brigadier General Janis Karpinski has told the paper over phone from her home in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

The CIA has been quoted in The Post as saying itsInspector General is working with the Pentagon to see if the CIA is involved in the abuses.

A spokesman has said that the agency is opposed to abusing prisoners in Iraq.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section

4 Israeli children shot dead

Fallujah — a traumatised, angry city

Kadirgamar sees no LTTE 'preconditions'

Oslo team meets Chandrika

Criminal abuses, says American magazine

Authenticity of 'torture' images disputed

Russia warns Georgia

U.S. asks all citizens in Saudi Arabia to leave

'Sri Lanka sought mediation'

Poisoned for going to school

Al-Qaeda jailbreak foiled

U.K. stocks 'nuclear pills'